With the start of a new year, we thought it would be a good time to explore the current state of raw processing with a head-to-head comparison of the leading cross-platform raw image converters: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4, Phase One's Capture One Pro 7 and DxO Optics Pro 8. Of course, today's raw converters offer much more than just demosaicing algorithms. Issues such as processing speed, imaging workflow and output options rank right up there with image quality for amateur and professional photographers alike. And as software gets more and more clever about image analysis, the ability to start with a pleasing image at default settings is enticing as well.

So we loaded our test computer with hundreds of raw files from a variety of cameras and put each application through its paces to find out which one offers the best combination of performance, features and of course, image quality.

The minimum hardware requirements of each application are fairly similar, with all three available for both Mac and Windows operating systems. Each application benefits from multi-core processors, plenty of empty hard drive space and lots of available memory. I'd suggest at least 8 gigabytes of RAM on any system, particularly if you like to have multiple programs running at once.

The contenders

Lightroom 4's modular approach is tailored to a comprehensive capture to output workflow.

Adobe's raw converter and image management software offers tight integration with the company's industry-standard editing software, Photoshop CS. Among the new features in the latest version of Lightroom are geo-tagging, soft-proofing and the ability to create print-ready books. You can read about these and other features in our Lightroom 4 review. For a list of currently supported cameras, visit Adobe's Camera Raw page. Adobe also has Lightroom 4 online training videos available.

Phase One's raw converter has long been popular with fashion and studio photographers due to its robust support for tethered shooting. New to version 7 is a catalog-based asset management option and live view during tethered shooting for select DSLRs. The latest dot release (7.0.2) introduces support for Fujifilm's X-Trans sensor cameras and you can see how it handles the X-Pro1's raw files in our recent test. For a list of currently compatible cameras, visit Phase One's support page. Phase One provides a video tutorial series for Capture One Pro 7 on their YouTube channel.

DxO Optics Pro 8 is best known for its extensive, automated corrections for lens flaws.

DxO Labs' raw converter is built around the company's well-regarded camera/lens correction modules. Long favored by many users in conjunction with external asset management apps, version 8 introduces selective tonal edits and print capability. You can read about these features in our DxO Optics Pro 8: What's New article. For a list of currently compatible cameras, visit DxO labs' support page. DxO Labs also hosts a library of DxO Optics Pro 8 tutorials on their web site.

In this raw converter showdown we'll compare these three programs in the following categories:

Comments

We can only hope that Aperture 4 includes a RAW converter plugin architecture so we're not stuck with Apple's pathetic tools and their apathetic update cycle. (Yes, some may be satisfied with Apple's RAW support for their particular camera but the breadth of coverage is not very wide nor deep.)

"With the start of a new year, we thought it would be a good time to explore the current state of raw processing with a head-to-head comparison of the leading cross-platform raw image converters"I see your point but if we included Bibble it would have been hard to justify not including several other applications.

For a supposed review site the house style has become cringingly embarrassing. This evaluation of software is a "showdown" of "contenders". The migration from Docklands to Hollywood is almost complete. Is Scott Kelby now the editor?

Thanks for the review! It's timely seeing as I was curious about the current special DxO has on their products. I've used Ligthroom since it's beginning and agree with most of your points about the product.

Still wish everyone would work towards team workflows. That's my biggest gripe about Lightroom. It takes some work to get multiple users to work with the same images and same database. If I could have my entire studio simultaneously working on the same Ligthroom database....that's pretty close to post-processing nirvana.

I imagine the reviewers chose cross-platform tools not because of the utility of cross-platform usage (or it's value as a "selling point") but because a review of those tools would be relevant to the widest audience of dpreview readers.

As you rightly observe, Amadou, you could indeed have "done" a comprehensive review of the raw converter market. And had you done so, you might well have produced a robust and respected piece of work of which you could be justly proud.

@BJN: ViewNX2 Nikontool for Nikoncameras doing a great job with Nikonrawfiles and associated Nikoncameras and upload to Nikon Image service? 14bit Software with a userbase of millions? Sometimes 3rd party software is not the answer. Besides that - fast and dependable processing, good archivfunctions. No reason to pay ransom to Adobe.

Gimp works well, has a 12bit limit and thus limited to everday workflow - no superhighresolution files at the moment, soon to be solved. I replaced PS 4 years ago with Gimp on all PC-Workstations. And I dont employ pain in the ass Macacademy PS artdrones.

Actually it is a poorly informed choice. Even though the version number has not changes in a while, there have been several updates making changes to functionality. The last update was not that long ago.

Aperture seems to have been deliberately excluded because it's not cross-platform. But it still should have rated a mention.

FWIW, I'm an Aperture user myself, but tried out Capture One about a week ago. C1's default rendering was more high key, which is generally more flattering for portraits. No obvious differences in clarity though. But I like Aperture's retouching tools much better.

As stated in the very first sentence, our aim was to compare cross-platform raw converters. For a piece as involved as this one, we have to prioritize software which any of our readers (apologies to Linux users) can actually use.

The fact that Aperture was not included because you apparently are awaiting an update has some plausibility. However, "cross platform" as the reason for not including Aperture won't cut it, especially since your test machine was a Mac! Indeed, you also left out AfterShot Pro (née Bibble Pro) from Corel, which is one of the most cross-platform commercial applications out there, as it runs on Mac/Windows/ AND Linux! I am not only interested in hearing about the market leaders. I also want to hear about what is viable, period.

I found this an interesting review, but share the viewpoint that it would have been nice to have seen Aperture included, since it's the obvious rival to Lightroom. While I accept that Aperture isn't cross-platform, the test was carried out on a Mac, probably the system of choice for most photographers, and even those currently using PCs would surely like to know whether Apple offers a RAW-processing product that warrants switching allegiances.

If you want to do heavy tonal compression on an image ( bring out detail in highlights and shadows) and still have the image looking natural and not 'HDR'ed' then LR is way better than C1 or DXO - it's not even close.

All the chatter about default is off the mark, it all smacks of simplistic jpeg processing and may as well be compared to in camera processing. A more accurate assessment can be made by processing marginal difficult images.

Great article, good effort in getting a comparison across 3 popular PP products. Despite some of the criticism that alternative products X, Y and Z etc, were not included, the review gave a good detailed overview about each product's capabilities especially in comparison to the others being reviewed.

Yes, it would have been nice to have some kind of comparison tool that listed and compared features between all these PP products available on the market today. However, we talking software products, not cameras which have the hard stats nicely listed out for a side by side comparison. We want to know about the quality of these products, not so much their metrics or hard stats.

The review dealt mainly with a lot of visual concepts, nebulous renderings and subjective outputs, so all in all only a very few products could be compared against one another at the same time. How would an article of this scope and magnitude comparing all similar software PP products been possible?

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